October, 1920 
29 
In order to feed the 
town, the farms 
nearby must be cul- 
tiv at e d and the 
roads kept in good 
condition 
T HE era that ban¬ 
ished the fireplace 
and snuffed the candle 
huddled people into 
towns and brought them 
food they knew not 
wherefrom, with the re¬ 
sult that the nation has 
been thinking in terms 
of the town and of man¬ 
ufactured articles, and 
the city has forgotten 
the country. 
We are now facing the 
inevitable consequences 
of this mal-adjustment. 
The townsman is com¬ 
plaining of the high cost 
of living and is looking 
askance at the farmer 
who is telling him that 
unless the town gives 
back to the farmer his 
laborers and the neces¬ 
sary hours of labor he 
can no longer feed the 
town. We are already 
facing the fulfillment of 
the prophetic warning 
of James J. Hill, uttered 
fourteen years ago, that 
the national wastage of 
Intensive cultivation, made necessary by the requirements of a dense population and 
made possible by the division of the land into small holdings, not only assures a large 
total yield to the French city but gives to French farms the nicety of a garden. 
Good roads and well-kept canals make possible rapid transportation of food stuffs 
FROM FARM TO TABLE 
As The French Solve The Food Problem 
LAURENCE H. PARKER 
This aero view of a 
French countryside 
shows the close re¬ 
lation between the 
town and country 
our mineral and timber 
resources and of our soil 
fertility must result, 
within a comparatively 
short time, in this ver¬ 
itable Land of Promise 
being hard pressed to 
feed its own people. We 
are forced to find a way 
to avert this evil, and we 
are coming to recognize 
the wisdom of Sir Hor¬ 
ace Plunkett’s words 
that a complete change 
in the whole attitude of 
public opinion towards 
the question of town and 
country must precede 
any practical readj ust- 
ment of American eco¬ 
nomic life. 
In our helplessness be¬ 
fore the newness of our 
problem we no longer 
disdain, as in our super¬ 
abundant youth, to learn 
from the old world. Tc 
those countries where 
these problems have beer 
met successfully we art 
now turning for methods 
(Continued on page 64) 
